Union County hiker is missing in the Great Swamp

A Union County man remains missing tonight after he wandered off a trail in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge earlier in the evening, officials said.

With overnight temperatures dipping into the lower 30s with patchy frost, Chatham Township Mayor Kevin Tubbs said rescuers are concerned for the man's health and safety, noting the hiker was unlikely to have brought much equipment.

"He was not planning on spending the night there," Tubbs said.

The hiker, whom Tubbs declined to identify, called police on his cell phone around 6 p.m. to report that he was lost. He was "in good health and good spirits," Tubbs said.

But although the man was able to use a GPS feature on his cellphone to give his exact coordinates to a rescue team on a State Police helicopter, the team was unable to locate him, largely because trees blocked their view, Tubbs said.

Rescuers no longer have contact with the man, he added.

"His cellphone seems to have died," Tubbs said.

Several agencies are cooperating to find the hiker, working out of an incident command post that has been set up at the up at the Morris County Great Swamp Outdoor Education Center, said Tubbs.

The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is a 7,600 acre area, located primarily in Morris County.